


A Carefully Laid Scheme

by GhostStone



Series: Spiderman and Daredevil [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Humor, Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:58:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostStone/pseuds/GhostStone
Summary: “I think the name is rather self-explanatory.” Foggy finally answered a bit slowly. “I figure he must be a mutant of some sort. No clue how he keeps a secret identity with eight limbs though. You think that would be pretty hard to hide.” Foggy nearly held his breath, waiting to see if Matt would buy it.It turns out that none of the news articles really describe what Spiderman really looks like. And Foggy really isn't a good enough person to resist.





	A Carefully Laid Scheme

Foggy hadn’t really planned from the beginning to have Matt on, but the opportunity had presented itself and he would have had to be a saint to resist such a perfect trolling situation. And, if he was perfectly honest, Matt had it coming. The idea that he could mess with Matt had first been planted in his head when he and Matt had finally had a serious conversation about Matt’s powers and about their friendship. It had been long overdue—and possibly would have never happened if they had been left to their own devices—but the conversation had taken place until Karen had found out Matt’s secret. Realizing the reason for the tension between Matt and Foggy of late, she had forced them to talk it out.

It wasn’t the fact that Matt had powers that had made Foggy so angry with everything. In fact, if that was all it was and Matt had been honest about it somewhat sooner, Foggy would have thought it the coolest thing in the world. It was definitely more due to his friend’s complete disregard for his own safety and that he had lied for so long. Foggy had felt like a fool—like he had been used—and he had been too upset to even let Matt try and explain himself. So when the conversation actually happened, Foggy learned a lot—though the heartbeat thing still creeped him out more than a little.

The fact that Matt could hear heartbeats was disturbing enough on its own, but it was compounded by the fact that Matt could tell if people were lying. That had bothered Foggy probably more than it should have. Not that he had made a habit of lying to Matt, or lying to anyone for that matter, but the fact that Matt might have known and went along with it made him uncomfortable. It was upon discussing this that Matt had explained that he didn’t _always_ know if someone was lying. How he had explained to Foggy was that it was like looking at a page of a book, as if each heartbeat, each tell, was a word on the page. Knowing how to read it didn’t directly correlate with reading it. Using the book metaphor, if someone knew how to read and focused, they could look at the page and understand what it said, but even if someone knew how to read, if they weren’t trying to, they might only catch a word or two on the page and without context, it meant nothing. So even if Matt could hear the heartbeat of whoever he was talking to and maybe catch a few other tells, unless he was going out of his way to try and determine if someone was being honest as he often did as Daredevil or as a lawyer, he might miss someone lying to him. And Matt had quietly explained that he trusted Foggy and that they were friends. He had never felt a particular need to try and discern if Foggy was telling the truth or not. With that exhausting conversation out of the way Foggy and Matt’s friendship had finally began to heal.

Matt, Foggy, and Karen were all hanging out at Matt’s place, having a few drinks over dinner and enjoying themselves despite not really doing much at all. However it was getting late and nearing time to leave. Karen was perched on the arm of the couch nearest the door, waiting for Foggy to finish his drink before she left since he had offered to walk her home and Hell’s Kitchen was not really a place to go walking alone at night if it could be helped. Having grown bored of waiting, she was completely ignoring everything around her, engrossed in whatever game she was currently playing on her phone. Matt was frowning. He had been listening to a news article on his computer. Seeming to notice Foggy’s attention, he pulled out his earbuds and turned to his friend.

“What do you know about Spiderman?” Matt asked suddenly.

“Spiderman?” Foggy asked, a little lost. It seemed vigilantes were popping up everywhere, but since Spiderman seemed mostly occupied in Queens, Foggy hadn’t bothered to do more than idly read about him when he appeared in major headlines.

“Why is he called Spiderman? Is he-?”

Foggy felt a wave of excitement rush over him before he forced himself to calm down. This was the kind of opportunity he had been waiting for. And it was even more perfect than he had imagined.  “The article didn’t say?” He asked casually, draining the last of his drink and setting the glass down on the table. Matt shook his head. Foggy took a moment to gather himself before answering. “I think the name is rather self-explanatory.” Foggy finally answered a bit slowly. “I figure he must be a mutant of some sort. No clue how he keeps a secret identity with eight limbs though. You think that would be pretty hard to hide.” Foggy nearly held his breath, waiting to see if Matt would buy it.

“…eight limbs?” Matt muttered disbelievingly before Foggy watched the suspicion fill his expression. This was the moment of truth. Matt was undoubtedly trying to determine if he was lying now. Foggy hoped he would be able to avoid raising any red flags. “And the article mentioned webs?”

Foggy wanted to cheer. Matt had picked a question he could totally answer truthfully, no lying involved even if it would totally further his deception. “Yeah, apparently he can shoot webs—not out of his butt, thank goodness. He kind of flings himself from building to building. The webs seem to come out of his…arms? I have no clue how any of it works.” Matt looked skeptical and still suspicious but now a touch confused. No doubt he had learned that in that statement at least, Foggy was telling the truth, but he had also not missed Foggy’s quick hearbeat or excitement. He wasn’t immediately willing to trust him and Foggy needed to distract him. “Look, buddy, one accident with a truck of chemicals and you came out with super-senses. Who are you to judge what abilities other people end up with? _You_ are lucky. For all you know about how it happened you could have came out of it with eight arms or two heads.”

Matt snorted, still seeming a bit wary, but not having caught Foggy in a lie—if  only because he started trying to too late—he seemed to be reluctantly accepting that Spiderman may be more bizarre than anticipated. Foggy had one more tidbit of information he could twist to his use. “He also does this really creepy thing—I dont know if you read about it—but you know how spiders can climb walls and ceilings?” Matt nodded slowly. “Spiderman can do that too. There’s all these videos of him climbing buildings and its actually really creepy. I mean why a spider? No one likes spiders.”

Apparently still unwilling to take Foggy’s word for it, Matt turned. “Karen, is he having me on?”

Karen looked up and Foggy immediately saw that she probably hadn’t caught much of their conversation. Foggy did his best to seem unsuspicious. Karen, bless her, had apparently only caught the later, truthful part of Foggy’s description. “He’s telling the truth.” She said simply.

Matt apparently accepted that as sufficient confirmation and sat back with an incredulous expression before shaking his head. “You guys should probably head out soon. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

With a few minutes of farewells, Foggy and Karen left. They were walking for a minute or so when Karen turned to him curiously. “You’re being awfully quiet.” There was a look of consideration in her eyes and then they widened and a smile touched her lips. “What did I—”

Foggy silenced her with a hand over her mouth and shook his head. No doubt Matt was going to creepily stalk them with his senses for as long as he could to make sure they were safe Once they were blocks away, almost to Karen’s place, and the noise of a train surely prevented any possibility of Matt listening in and discovering Foggy’s trick, he answered Karen in a quiet voice. “I could kiss you for your help back there—unintentional as it was.” He grinned widely. “I think I just managed to convince Matt that Spiderman is actually some kind of humanoid spider. Eight arms and everything.”

Karen let out a startled laugh. “Seriously?”

With a huge smirk, Foggy started scheming. “Of course we’ll need to reinforce this without making him suspicious. Don’t bring up Spiderman for a few days unless he does and stick to the truth as much as you can without giving up the truth. Then we’ll drop a few suggestions when he’s let down his guard, reinforce the belief.”

“Isn’t this a little…mean?”

Foggy shook his head. “He had it coming. Also, just think of how awesome it will be if he ever actually meets Spiderman.” That set off Karen giggling again and she agreed.

Every facet of Foggy’s plan was very carefully planned and implemented. Basically it involved slipping in casual references to Spiderman into conversations, not enough to make Matt overly suspicious or give him any time to try and determine if it was a truth or a lie, but enough to plant just a few other bizarre ideas in Matt’s brain and confirm the ones that he already had. It had been nearly a week after the first lie about Spiderman before Foggy had dared try and further the deception. Foggy had sat on Karen’s desk, knowing Matt would overhear but pretending that wasn’t part of the plan. Karen’s phone buzzed with a text and she glanced at it.

_Don’t react._

Karen shot Foggy a confused look.

“Did you see that video over the weekend?” He asked casually. “The one where Spiderman made a huge web between skyscrapers. I’m curious how much human and how much spider he really is. Like did he do it on purpose or is it instinct?” Karen just barely kept herself neutral.

“No, I didn’t see that. I’ll have to look for it later.”

The next time was similar. As the three of them were walking together Foggy laid down another piece of support for his deception. “Do you think Spiderman has two legs and six arms or four legs and four arms, or can he use any of his limbs for either? You’d think by now someone would have gotten a clearer video of him.” Karen immediately jumped in, not trusting herself in not giving away the ploy but helping anyway by deterring Matt from asking any questions by starting a discussion on which combination of arms and legs would be most useful if you had eight limbs.

A month later, Foggy was sure that Matt had finally fully accepted all their misinformation surrounding Spiderman, and he waited gleefully for the day that Matt would realize that Foggy and Karen had fed him a whole ton of crap. He just didn’t actually think it would be when Matt actually met Spiderman, but then Foggy saw live news coverage of Daredevil fighting alongside Spiderman and dissolved into helpless giggles as he watched, ignoring the confused looks of the people around him. Soon enough, the two vigilantes had taken care of the threat and Foggy wandered back to his apartment. It was two in the morning when Foggy was woken up by the window to his fire escape being forced open. He sat up groggily just in time to see Matt jump down to the floor.

“You have no idea how much I hate you right now.” Matt said flatly.

Foggy couldn’t help it. He began to laugh, and once he started he couldn’t stop. Matt looked even more annoyed the longer it went on before finally he seemed to see some of the humor in the situation and his lips unwillingly twitched up into some semblance of a smile. Matt jumped back onto the window. “I just came to give you warning.” He smirked. “Turnabout is fair play.” And with that, the window shut and Matt disappeared into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm considering writing the scene where Matt meets Spiderman. So for now this is a oneshot, but it might get another chapter if I feel like it. Hope you liked it!


End file.
